Human Rights in an Advancing Civilization is reviewed in the current issue of ONE COUNTRY (“Where human rights have come from — and where they are likely to go“):

…Mr. Emmel takes readers on a tour of the history of human rights, going back to the concept of sanctuary in Jewish and, later, Roman law. He discusses the rights of citizens in Greek city-states, and the contributions made by Christianity and Islam. He then moves through the Enlightenment philosophers and to the modern day, covering the history of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Along the way, he breaks the discussion into discrete topics, such as minority rights, rights and development, and the rule of law. He discusses, for example, the issue of individual and community identity — and how those concepts impact the evolving conception of human rights.

Too often in the past, he notes, a society’s limited view of human identity has led to a limited view of rights for some — as, say, when minorities or women are seen as having fewer rights….